The Traffic Cop Who Helped Contestants Shop! :)

Hello Everyone!

Some fantastic original publicity material for Jack Kelly's kwiz show Sale of the Century recently joined the Kellection. Here's a bio sheet for JK from Fall 1970. Note the "NBC--The Full Color Network" line on the letterhead. Color programming was now the norm on network television after years of black-and-white broadcasting:

A 1970 article in The Pittsburgh Press examined how the former Maverick handled the reins of a game show:

"Sale of the Century is the name of the game.

"The aspect that sets it apart from other quiz and game shows is that its host, Jack Kelly, is probably the only former cowboy star ever to emcee such a program.

"...Kelly, who played Bart Maverick in 176 episodes of Maverick for five seasons (James Garner played Bret) considers Century an adjunct for himself.

"'I've been at it seven or eight months,' he said. 'It certainly is not as confining as work activity normally is for us.'

"'We tape three shows on Mondays and three on Wednesdays, which permits us to pick up one show a week.'

"'Now, I wish we could produce 8 or 9 or 10 shows a week because that way I'd be able to build up a big backlog and do a motion picture.'

"The reason they cannot do too many shows in too short a time span, he said, is that there is limited storage space for the larger game prizes, such as yachts and autos, and the turnover of merchandise can occur only so quickly.

"Selecting the guests on the show from the thousands of applicants is a matter taken care of by a staff.

"It's no coincidence that most contestants are above average in appearance and intelligence. On such shows, the network always have an abundance of volunteers from which to pick and choose.

"'We do, I guess, make some attempt', he said, 'to--oh--to pick the brightest or the ones with the most interesting personalities, etc., and hope that they function in a fun-loving or happy manner.'

"....Sale of the Century has nothing in common with Kelly's previous TV success:

"'Maverick was an awful lot of fun,' he said, 'There was a much more tedious physical exertion involved.'

"'99% of my activity on Century is ad lib and strictly off the top of my head, so that things come up, situations happen, peculiar answers come out of people from which you can feed off of to develop a joke line or something of that nature.'

"'It's a steady job. That makes it fulfilling. And, second, there is a certain amount of ego involved in bringing yourself to a proper pitch every day.'

"'You know, your ego would get smothered pretty well when you'd look at a daily [rush] from a Maverick show, say, and you'd look at it and say:  I wish...I could have done that differently, and it would have been better.'

"'Well, this is the same thing in a different hat. If I'm down, and my energy isn't up, and all of a sudden I say a couple of things I think are hilarious joke lines on the spur of the moment and I get no reaction, you know, your ego gets bent a little out of shape.'

"It's sort of my position as traffic cop to be bright and beautiful and energy-filled. It takes a little bit out of you from that point of view.'

"'Whether you're doing a Maverick or a giveaway show, there's a certain amount of showmanship that's demanded on the part of the traffic cop, which in this case is the emcee.'"

Unfortunately, JK fans learned long ago that NBC erased most of its 1960's and 1970's game shows to use the tapes to record other programs, although a handful of recordings of JK's SOTC is known to exist in UCLA's Film and Television Archive.

HOWEVER, someone somehow found the soundtracks of two October 1969 episodes of SOTC and has graciously shared them on YouTube! Now, we can hear Jack Kelly being "bright and beautiful and energy-filled" as he plays "traffic cop" and offers contestants the chance to buy prizes such as his-and-her Volkswagens and $3000 living room suites for "totally ridiculous" prices (NOTE--if having trouble viewing on mobile version of TDS, please view on web version):

It's SO wonderful to hear these! Not only because of JK, but because of the other nostalgia, too, such as the UNICEF Halloween appeal by Elizabeth Montgomery. (I can picture the little orange boxes.) 

You may recognize the voice of announcer Bill Wendell from David Letterman's shows. 

And, I'm amazed by all the literary-related questions on SOTC! Luigi Pirandello? John Dos Passos? Is this actually Jeopardy I'm listening to? ;)

Most of all, it's just great to experience JK's exuberance, even if he's only heard and not seen. It's obvious he truly enjoyed interacting with the contestants and could really think on his feet.

Maybe by some miracle, someone will find a complete episode of SOTC with video and audio which can be posted to YouTube. Well, these soundtracks will have to do for now. A huge "Thank you" to the user(s) who posted them on YT!

AND....speaking of rare material:

I recently obtained a JK appearance which is so obscure that it's not in any of his credit lists. You won't see it on YouTube or anywhere else that I'm aware of. I'm still researching it; however, I can verify that it was filmed during JK's time on Maverick. This incredibly rare Kellectible is in a now-obsolete format, but I'm working on a way to view it and share it here in TDS--please stay tuned! :)